Intercultural Training at the vocational college in Wipperfürth

What is culture? What perception of culture do we possess? In what way does our cultural background consciously or unconsciously shape our behaviour, perceptions and actions?

These were some of the questions that were raised and dealt with in an intercultural training, which took place at the vocational college in Wipperfürth. This workshop was prepared and implemented by our two social workers. All students, who will directly participate in Erasmus activities, were invited to take part in the workshop.

This training was intended to prepare students for project cooperation with Estonian and Slovenian partners. The objectives were: 1. raise awareness for intercultural differences they could be faced with in the course of such a project, 2. make students aware of their own cultural background and 3. encourage them to question their own culturally shaped perceptions.

Students could engage in a variety of creative and practical exercises. For example, they familiarized themselves with various culturally shaped expectations regarding the concepts of “time” and “punctuality”. In addition, they engaged in discussions concerning their own concept/ perception of culture. They could also experience the way one feels when meeting people from different cultural backgrounds for the first time. As a consequence, they could learn more about how to cope with these situations by talking about behaviour patterns and traits that might facilitate these encounters.

In conclusion it can be stated that all participants thoroughly enjoyed this workshop.